Macawnly looking for love

A blue-and-yellow macaw, believed to be the only wild macaw left in Rio de Janeiro, has been spotted visiting the city’s zoo nearly every day to try to find a mate.

The bird, named Juliet, has appeared at the Bioparque’s macaw enclosure almost every morning for the last two decades looking for her feathery Romeo, according to experts.

Blue-and-yellow macaws live to be about 35 years old and Juliet – no spring chicken – should have found a lifelong mate years ago, according to Neiva Guedes, president of environmental group the Hyacinth Macaw Institute.

But Guedes said Juliet has not paired, built a nest or had chicks, so at most she is “still just dating”.

She said: “They’re social birds, and that means they don’t like to live alone, whether in nature or captivity. They need company.” Guedes added Juliet “very probably feels lonely, and for that reason goes to the enclosure to communicate and interact” with other birds.

Apart from Juliet, the last sighting of a blue-and-yellow macaw flying free in Rio was in 1818 by an Austrian naturalist, according to Marcelo Rheingantz, a biologist at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and there are no other types of macaws in the city. The Spix’s macaw, made famous by the children’s film Rio and known as the little blue macaw, is native to Brazil.

Being boisterous with brilliant plumage helps macaws find each other in dense forest, but this also makes them easier targets for hunters and animal traffickers.